In this week’s update: Dealing with snow, “A Day With the Birds” temporary exhibit, “Discover Your Past” Virtual Genealogy Workshop THIS Saturday, and more!
In this update, keep up to date on what staff and volunteers at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum are working on to lift up the history of Lindsborg and the surrounding region. This weekly update both looks back at what happened and looks ahead at what’s coming.
For January 19-25, 2026:
- We were closed last Saturday because of the deep snow and frigid temperatures. We’re remaining closed today (Monday, January 26) until we are able to dig out from the snow across our 15 acres and to check on the condition of our 10 historic buildings.
- This week (weather permitting) we will be opening “A Day with the Birds” temporary exhibit starting on January 27 and running through March 7!
Developed by the Kauffman Museum in Newton, Kansas, the traveling exhibit includes taxidermized birds, informational panels (in both English and Spanish) and many hands-on interactive elements. The exhibit is included in regular museum admission!
In conjunction with the exhibit and the Lindsborg Cultural Crawl, we will also be hosting a free presentation by Bill Brock of the Smoky Hills Audubon Society about birdwatching at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 6!
- We are excited to offer the first “Discover Your Past” Virtual Genealogy Workshop, set for THIS Saturday on January 31, 2026!
Rather than the usual focus on Swedish genealogy research resources, this time the sessions will be able to apply to ANY genealogy or family research, regardless of country background! Museum members register with a $20 discount. We hope you can join us!
We also recently added a half-day Beginning Swedish Workshop for February 21, 2026. It will cost $20 or just $10 for members.
- Adam processed one new and one renewing membership last week!
Even so, we are currently showing about 85 recent membership supporters who are overdue on renewing.
Have you renewed your museum membership? (Are you sure?)
Memberships are a critical source of reliable support for the museum! And we now have an exciting new option – Lifetime Membership!
Give us a call at 785-227-3595 or email at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com, and we will be glad to check on your status. It’s also a great time to think about becoming a new member if you’ve never been one before, or to purchase a gift membership for someone special in your life! See www.oldmillmuseum.org/members for details!
- Sponsorship opportunities for Millfest 2026 are now open and available! With new sponsorships coming in last week, already we have had $4,550 in event sponsorship dollars come in!
Scheduled next year for Saturday, May 2, this is the one time annually that our visitors can take guided tours of the 1898 Old Mill IN OPERATION! The festival also includes, music, entertainment, arts & crafts, antique tractor show, games, demonstrations and face painting!
Giving levels to sponsor run from as little as $25 to get your name in the program to $5,000 or more to secure topline “Brought to you by…” overall event sponsorship. You can also choose to direct your donation to specific Millfest attractions, including face painting, tractor show, Old Mill tours, or music performances! See full details including how to arrange your sponsorship with the forms included below.
- The Winter 2026 “Museum Messenger” newsletter is now available! Check out the online version at www.oldmillmuseum.org/newsletter.
- We are more than 1/3 of the way toward the funds we will need under the “Raise the Roof” campaign to repair the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion’s roof in a more durable and historically accurate way, with $106,431.15 donated to the roof phase of the project. Last week we applied for a Legacy Nutt grant to try to close the funding gap to finish the project; even so, more will likely be needed to be able to complete this phase 2.
If you would like to help with Raise the Roof, you can learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof. Contributions made now will not be eligible for the special tax credit opportunity, but may have tax benefits as a qualifying donation to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization charity.
We have several recognition reward levels available: These include recognition on our website and an invitation to a special VIP event once all of the funds needed for the roof (at $100 or more) and opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall (at $1,000 or more)!
- We are continuing our critical Harvest of Giving fundraising event into 2026 as our topline goal in $50,000 in unrestricted donations – to keep the museum lights on and the doors open in 2026 – has not yet been met. Currently, this effort is at about $40,000.
In the space of four years, a major source of public funding has gone from covering half of our annual expenses to less than 8% and is not showing any signs of returning. Because of this, it is more important than ever for generous private donors, businesses, and organizations to step in and ensure that the rare experiences at the Museum continue to be available in 2026. Learn more and make your charitable donation today at www.oldmillmuseum.org/harvest-of-giving.
- Adam edited together video from Heritage Christmas 2025 and posted it to YouTube.
- Handy Crew volunteers continued working to rearrange artifacts in the Heritage Square Implement building to better display the wagons and vehicles in the collection.
- Adam continued working with a Kansas company on development of an exciting new recipe mix.
- Thanks to Marc Anderson for cleaning up several illegally dumped items in the campgrounds picnic area.
- Lenora met with Bethany College professor Rana Razel about a planned spring class project for designing and installing a new exhibit in the Swedish Pavilion.
- Lenora has been working on outreach for Millfest demonstrators and vendors, as well as reaching out to schools and homeschool groups for Millfest for Kids.
- Adam submitted the final quarterly report for the Community Service Program tax credits grant.
- Adam worked on a grant to help cover part of an upcoming marketing expense.
- Adam worked on a solution for linking off of Facebook and Instagram under their limitations. We can now keep links centralized and change them at at time at https://linktr.ee/oldmillmuseum.
- Lenora attended weekly coffee at Sunflower Terrace in this continued community outreach.
- Lenora and Adam attended a meeting with CKA Consulting to plan upcoming grant opportunities.
- Lenora worked on ArkivDigital document indexing for five hours last week under a contract with the organization.
- Tyler is continuing to work on digitizing our collection of printed literature, while Julie Ann continues with adding to our Historic Image Database collection.
Thank you to our weekly volunteers!
This week that included Betty Amos, Jerry Hammerton, Leland Nelson, Karmon Almquist, Mike Koch, Marc Anderson, and Mike Lynam.